The purpose of this feature is to give scout leaders, educators and naturalists an idea of some of the natural events coming up each month.  We will try to cover a variety of natural events ranging from sky events to calling periods of amphibians, bird and mammal watching tips,  prominent wildflowers and anything else that comes to mind.  We will also note prominent constellations appearing over the eastern horizon at mid-evening each month for our area for those who would like to learn the constellations.  If you have suggestions for other types of natural information you would like to see added to this calendar, let us know!

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Notes and Images From November 2015

We think of November as a time of transition.  On wet days we still hear Southern Leopard Frogs calling from our pond, and occasionally the very dry-sounding fall calls of Upland Chorus Frogs.  But the cold morning temperatures take their toll on the spider and insect populations. 

This Wheel Bug was barely moving when found on a beautiful but brisk fall morning at the Owl's Hill Nature Sanctuary. Wheel Bugs are easy to recognize by the cogwheel-like armor atop their thorax.  They are a type of assassin bug, and use their curved beak to spear prey and inject a paralytic substance that kills in seconds.  They are considered beneficial, preying on many garden pests.  Wheel Bugs are important in areas that are forested or have shade trees - they feed on caterpillars that defoliate trees. 

In the insect world, Wheel Bugs dominate the food chain.  Michael J. Raupp, an entomologist at the University of Maryland, was quoted in a New York Times article as saying, “They’re the lion or the eagle of your food web.  They sit on top. When you have these big, ferocious predators in your landscape, that tells me that this is a very healthy landscape, because all these other levels in your food web are intact.”  

Later that morning I noticed these Turkey Tail bracket fungi on some decaying logs.  Their colors seemed to mirror the colors of the fall leaves.

Turkey Tails are polypores, which means that the underside of the visible fruiting body is porous.  The spores of the fungus are formed within and drop from these pores.  Turkey Tails are usually found on dead hardwood logs and stumps, but can sometimes be found on conifer logs. 

 Polypores decompose the components of rotting logs, and allow the recycling of the nutrients back into the soil.  They also provide habitat and food for many invertebrates, which in turn provide food for larger animals. 

Polypores have sometimes been used in herbal medicine, and ongoing research indicates that some may be useful in treating disorders of the immune system.

On November 11th, we were able to take advantage of a clear night and imaged the "grand design" spiral galaxy Messier 74.  Though most galaxies in the Messier catalog are relatively easy to see, M-74 has a fairly low surface brightness, making it tough to spot in smaller telescopes.  Sometimes only the brighter nucleus can be seen.

We only managed to get a little over three hours of exposure on the galaxy, which is something of a snapshot in terms of galactic imaging.  Still, the major arms and the pinkish hydrogen alpha emission nebulae show up pretty well.

Looking at the sweeping spiral arms of Messier 74, it's interesting to think about the rotation of this great star system.  The time required for a star to make one revolution around the galactic nucleus is immense. 

In our own Milky Way Galaxy, The Sun orbits the galactic center about once every 225 to 250 million years.  This is sometimes referred to as a galactic year.  That's a long time, but a relatively short time in comparison with the age of the Earth, which is around 4.543 billion years old.  That means that since the Earth was formed, we have orbited the galactic center about 18 times.  The above link has a nice chart that shows past and future events in terms of galactic years.

Messier 74 is about 32 million light-years distant, in the constellation of Pisces.  It was discovered in September of 1784 by Pierre Mechain. 

Constellations:  The views below show the sky looking east at 9:30pm CST on December 15th.  The first view shows the sky with the constellations outlined and names depicted.  Star and planet names are in green.  Constellation names are in blue.  The second view shows the same scene without labels. 

Look for the bright stars Castor and Pollux in the constellation of Gemini, The Twins.  Compare the colors of the bright stars Betelgeuse and Rigel in Orion.  Betelgeuse is a red giant and Rigel is a very hot, blue-white supergiant.  If you have a telescope or binoculars, look at the center of the three "sword" stars below Orion's belt.  There you will find the Orion Nebula, M42, one of the most magnificent emission nebulas in the sky.  The pink glow of hydrogen alpha light is visible only in very large telescopes and the nebula appears as a small greenish glow in small telescopes.  Crouching beneath the feet of  Orion, is Lepus, the Hare.  Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, shines below Orion.  Sirius is in Canis Major, the Great Dog, and for that reason is known as the Dog Star.  In the late summer, Sirius rises at the same time as the sun.  Because of this, the late summer days are known as the "dog days."   The faint constellation Monoceros, the Unicorn, follows Orion over the eastern horizon.  Low in the eastern sky below Gemini is Canis Minor, with its bright star Procyon.  Procyon means, "before the dog," and refers to the fact that Procyon rises just before the Dog Star, Sirus.  Look below Gemini and see if you can spot the faint glow of M44, the "Beehive Cluster."  This cluster is located in Cancer, the Crab.